How to build a video game collection on a budget.

Search

Search for:

Text Widget

This is a text widget, which allows you to add text or HTML to your sidebar. You can use them to display text, links, images, HTML, or a combination of these. Edit them in the Widget section of the Customizer.

Getting a NES Mini for free

So let me preface this entire blog by saying I’m a dirty dirty reseller. I said this on my very first blog, but to have the size of collection that I have reselling/flipping is a must. I can’t pick up every thing I want and pay full retail for it. What I can do however is buy things at retail stores and sell them for a profit to help pay for my collection. Hey if people are willing to pay for it I might as well as provide them with the goods.

This is the story of how I got my NES Mini.

As I was walking through Wal-Mart I was checking my normal spots like the toy aisle, clearance racks, and video game cabinets when I thought I saw a mirage right in the middle of Wal-Mart. At first I thought I accidentally got a second hand high from one of the heroine syringes that litters most Wal-Mart parking lots, but I wasn’t hallucinating. There were actually multiple NES mini’s sitting in the cabinet. I overheard two of the employees talking about how they just stocked the small Nintendos that morning, but they didn’t get in any switches. So I calmly walked out to my car in a pace that most onlookers would think I just shoplifted a pocket full of Peeps, because I accidentally left my wallet out in my car from my previous purchase of my McDonalds breakfast. I then walked just as calmly back into the store where the same onlookers probably thought I came back in for a second pocket Cadbury Eggs. I made my way back to the electronics and asked the lady if she could open up the case and she told me “NO”. She then said she just put them out that morning and didn’t want them to leave yet. So she nicely pulled one Mini out and started to lock the cabinet up. Before she could lock it I politely informed her that I wanted all of them not just one. She said she couldn’t do that as they don’t get them in very often. I told her I would take however much I was allowed to. She called a manager and asked what the limit of units she could sell to one person and he said I could take them all. I payed and walked out to my car with a stinging paranoia that I was going to be murdered for the contents of my Wal-Mart bags. I ended up getting 7 NES Minis.

Within 12 hrs I flipped 5 of the systems for just shy of double the retail price. After taking in account Ebay fees, shipping, packing materials, the gas to get to Wal-Mart, and the pockets full of Easter candy I had broke even with the benefit of now having two NES Minis that are 100% paid for. One Mini I plan on keeping and the other I have set aside for a friend of mine.

Some people would say that I am a filthy bastard for taking advantage of Nintendo’s limited manufacturing and my response to those people would be…You are absolutely right. But I am a filthy bastard with a free NES mini. Funding the fun is done in many different ways and my way just happens to leave me with some extra spending cash!

2 thoughts on “Getting a NES Mini for free”

There’s nothing wrong with reselling! However, some may call you can opportunist, but as long as you’re honest with it, there’s nothing to be ashamed about. Especially, when you get two free NES Minis.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with reselling/scalping. If people are willing to pay above retail for stuff that anyone can get in the store still then someone is always going to make a buck, might as well be me and funnel it back in to the hobby I love!